Walk through a store featuring home electronics, and you will see 4K TV (also known as Ultra-High Definition or UHD) everywhere. The trend is definitely moving toward larger screen size (60” and up) in the home, and from a consumer electronics point of view, it would seem that the conversion from 1080 to 4K is complete. However, as with previous transitions in TV technology, the move to widespread 4K content availability will take time.

At the cutting edge of the Internet of Things (IoT), today’s smart home market is growing rapidly. The notion of an Internet of Things is fairly recent, but the underlying technology has actually been around for over a decade, in the form of communications protocols that enable devices, or “things,” to speak to each other wirelessly, inexpensively and using very little power. However, not all protocols are created equal.

As the Ultra HD (UHD or 4K) TV bandwagon gains momentum, it is important to keep in mind that delivering excellent video quality requires much more than just increasing the picture resolution from 1920×1080 to 3840×2160 pixels. The expanded detail of 4K also creates new demands on the video signal processing chips that make it all happen.

While TVs were once turned on only to watch the nightly news or a favorite sitcom, today’s large flat screens dominate the room, and can do much more than just access content supplied by a broadcaster, including connecting to the home network and Internet. These new capabilities on the Smart TV are possible because of the advent of very powerful applications processors.